Topics in Modern Languages

Courses in specific topics, such as culture, literary movements or genres, linguistics or film. Taught in English. May be repeated for credit with a different topic. May count towards European Studies minor.

Distribution Area

Prerequisites

Credits

1 course

Fall Semester information

Cheira Belguellaoui

295A: Tps:Intro to World Cinema

This introductory film course is a survey of contemporary and most influential films from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America. Students will be exposed to a diverse array of culturally distinct and unique aesthetic expressions and will be encouraged to engage perspective(s) apart from their own while discussing topics including, but not limited to, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, class, and sexual orientation.

Hiroko Chiba

295B: Tps:Introduction to Linguistics

Spring Semester information

Maria Hristova

295A: Tps:Propaganda & Subversion

In this course we will look at two of the main concepts informing engaged art of the 20th and 21st centuries: propaganda and subversion. But what is propaganda? How does it affect our daily lives? What is the difference between propaganda and subversion, and what is their relationship to art, politics, and culture? To answer these and other similar questions we will examine the history, techniques, common practices and results of engaged art from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. We will study propaganda and subversion in visual art, literature, film, and mass media. By the end of the course, students will learn to recognize and interpret the wide range of tactics and techniques used by various interest groups to influence public communication. By examining in-depth how art and political ideologies intersect and influence each other, students will come to a deeper understanding of their own responses to art.

CJ Gomolka

295B: Tps:Identity Matters: Introduction to Transgender Studies

In this course, students will engage in a variety of theoretical material on Transgender issues as well as literary texts and media from both the Francophone and Anglophone worlds. We will explore the common themes of Transgender studies and trans narrative--namely, the body, corporeal authority and agency in the public and private sphere, questions of transformation, mutilation, and perfection, among others. In addition, we will explore notions of community, consumerism, heteronormative models of time, space, sexuality, gender, and language and how Transgender Studies has responded to these structures. Ultimately, this course will invite students to consider how the foundational concerns of Transgender Studies enhance as well as frustrate their own understanding of gender, sex, sexuality, race, class, and language.